Arthur Porter reportedly under scrutiny over SNC-Lavalin contract

When Quebec’s anti-corruption police squad raided the McGill University Health Centre’s (MUHC’s) downtown Montreal headquarters on Tuesday, looking for evidence of alleged wrongdoing in a public-private partnership contract awarded to a consortium led by SNC Lavalin Group Inc., they might have peeked inside a large corner suite on the 14th floor.

The space was recently occupied by Arthur Porter, the MUHC’s director-general until business controversies and questions about his commitment to routine administrative duties exploded late last year. MUHC is one of Canada’s largest public health care providers with almost 12,000 employees. The SNC-Lavalin consortium is building the MUHC’s new $1.3-billion hospital in Montreal’s west side and will help operate the facility for decades, according to the terms of a deal it finalized in 2010, during Dr. Porter’s tenure.

“Investigators have detected something fishy in the way the $1.3-billion contract was awarded that could shake the MUHC’s very foundation,” Montreal’s Gazette declared Wednesday. According to an unconfirmed report from Montreal’s Le Devoir newspaper, police are scrutinizing Dr. Porter himself.

Investigators have detected something fishy in the way the $1.3-billion contract was awarded

Also noted was the fact that SNC-Lavalin’s original point man for the MUHC hospital project was none other than Riadh Ben Aissa, who led his company’s construction division until his arrest in Switzerland in April. Mr. Aissa faces allegations of corrupt practices in Africa, where SNC-Lavalin has other projects. He was photographed with Dr. Porter at a ground-breaking ceremony at the new MUHC hospital site in June 2010. The project has since encountered construction delays and other problems.

Dr. Porter has not been accused of any wrongdoing. He is not charged with any crime.

He wasn’t responding to emails or conducting interviews following Tuesday’s police raid. An inveterate networker with corporate and financial interests all over the world, Dr. Porter is now a hard one to track down.

He wasn’t always so cloistered. He cheerfully welcomed me into his MUHC office last year. The walls were lined with photographs of Dr. Porter meeting with foreign dignitaries and politicians, including George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

I think I’m good at perhaps maybe running things, you know, managing time and managing motion

At the time, Dr. Porter still enjoyed many roles: MUHC boss; chairman of Canada’s Security Intelligence Review Committee, where he had access to all secrets collected by CSIS, Canada’s spy agency; “Ambassador Plenipotentiary” for his native country, Sierra Leone; chairman of a mysterious company called Africa Infrastructure Group (AIG); and a member of Air Canada’s well-compensated board of directors. On and on.

How could a relatively obscure oncologist and hospital administrator from poverty-stricken Sierra Leone have achieved such remarkable success in his adopted countries abroad, hobnobbing with presidents and prime ministers, conducting all manner of public and private business in Canada, the United States, Europe and the developing world? The Government of Canada has certainly never explained why it handpicked Dr. Porter to oversee Canada’s spy agency.

“I think I’m good at perhaps maybe running things,” Dr. Porter replied. “You know, managing time and managing motion… Maybe [because] I also have lived in different countries and, so, I understand how others feel.”

In 2010, Dr. Porter entered into a dubious business agreement with Ari Ben-Menashe, a notorious international consultant who often serves as a middleman between Russia and despotic African regimes. The pair signed an agreement that saw Dr. Porter wire $200,000 in personal funds to a U.S. bank account controlled by Mr. Ben-Menashe, who in return pledged to secure for Dr. Porter a $120-million “grant” from Russia. The money would be channelled to Dr. Porter’s private company, AIG, and would eventually be spent on various infrastructure projects Dr. Porter said he had proposed for Sierra Leone.

The deal fell apart. Each man claims the other failed to live up to the bargain. Dr. Porter’s money was returned to him; it’s still unclear whether he ever disclosed his failed deal to Canada’s Privy Council, as required, or to the MUHC board. The National Post also learned that Dr. Porter had offered to Conservative Senator David Angus, chairman of the MUHC board, a job as honorary consul for Sierra Leone, a blatant conflict of interest, according to national security experts.

In December, Dr. Porter resigned as MUHC executive director, thanks to concerns raised about his many outside business interests.

Similar worries were expressed when Dr. Porter served as chief executive officer of the Detroit Medical Center, the largest health system in Michigan; it hit hard financial times and was eventually sold. Dr. Porter left Detroit amidst controversy in 2004 and moved to Montreal.

He advised the company that he did not wish to stand for re-election this year

Earlier this year, Dr. Porter also quit Air Canada’s board. He “advised the company that he did not wish to stand for re-election this year,” says an Air Canada spokesman. “We have no comment to provide on Mr. Porter’s decision.”

He still serves as a director of various mining companies and remains involved with private cancer clinics in the Bahamas, where his wife and children have lived for years. He has also joined a Toronto-based executive search company, but he wasn’t available Wednesday. “He’s rarely in the office,” a company official said. “His schedule is extremely busy.”